7. Maxon
Time has stopped and if the world never started spinning again, I’m not sure that I would care.
I succumb to the call of her as our lips clash, momentarily paralyzed as my mind works to catch up with what’s happening. And then it all comes to a crashing realization in perfect clarity.
My hands fly to her face, one of them tangling into her hair while the other traces her cheek, traveling down to her jawline. Her skin soft to the touch and her lips…
Oh, these lips…
My memory has done her an injustice.
She tastes sweet against me, while her touch leaves a familiar tingling sensation, like I just drank an overly carbonated drink and now it dances against my senses. Her hands soften their hold on my jacket as she begins to pull away but I’m not letting her go that easily. I follow her lips, stepping closer, invading her space, her body heat mixes with mine and I am acutely aware of how close we are. How I could wrap my arms around her small frame and carry her off into the night if I wanted to…
And boy… I wanted to.
“Maxon…” Her voice is but a breath against me and I drink it in, devouring her lips once more.
Was it indecent the way I was kissing her in public? With the patrons surrounding us getting a full view of this intimate moment? Probably, but I’d buy the bar a round of drinks and they’d soon forget about it.
Dang, I’d buy the entire bar if it let me stay here kissing her.
I was a deserted man, and she was my oasis.
My body reverberates as my thumb traces the line of her jaw, my skin hardly containing me as I drink her in. Reveling in the feeling of her against me and with it comes a rush of emotions that I thought were long lost in the past.
Feelings that I’ve tried to shove down for the past nine years and the reason I’ve avoided attending as many of the Bennett’s parties as I could. It doesn’t matter how much I fight it or hide behind my meaningless dates, I’ve only ever been searching for this feeling. A feeling I got a taste of when we were ten and have been chasing ever since.
“Maxon,” her voice is a bit firmer now, her hand presses against my chest and I reluctantly pull away. I’m willing to do a lot of things, but force myself on someone has never been one of them. Yet, the longing haze in her eyes tells me she didn’t want that kiss to end any more than I did.
So why does she push me away?
She takes a steadying breath, composing herself and pulling on her mask of indifference and it’s like she twists and turns the knife in my heart. How does she do that? After everything we’ve been through, how does she act like I’m just another passing stranger?
I blink at her, dropping my hands from her face. My eyes drop to her lips for a second, her lipstick slightly smudged and I can’t help a smile slipping across my own. I run a hand across my mouth, trying to hide the grin as I feel the waxiness that is her lipstick on my lips.
Her eyes cut towards the rest of the bar and I follow her gaze to a man who looks vaguely familiar, watching us with a knit brow before making his way towards us. “Knoxy?” He says and I narrow my eyes on him.
Paige shoots him a tight lipped smile. “Mike, hi. Long time no see.”
He laughs. “Are you my date for tonight? When Hope talked about her assistant, she failed to mention that it was my high school girlfriend.”
That’swhy I recognized him.
My body heats as anger rises within me. I know this boyfriend. I had watched in silent fury when Paige cried over him in Theo’s bedroom after he humiliated her at their school.
I wonder how long it took his nose to heal after I broke it the next day…
I step closer to Paige, and I feel her leg bounce in discomfort next to me. “Sorry bud, she’s mine.” I say with a tight smile of my own, my gaze narrowed on the man in front of me.
Mike acknowledges me for the first time with an arched eyebrow, as if questioning if he could take me on if he wanted to. I was more than willing if he wanted to try, but unless his moves have seriously improved in the last ten years he wouldn’t last long in the back alleyway. He shrugs as if the loss of Paige was just a minor inconvenience.
Idiot.
“Oh well, it was good seeing you Knoxy.” Mike winks at her and I take a subtle step forward. I would have thought the movement was unnoticeable, except for when Paige places a firm grip on my forearm, as if reading my mind.
I steal a glance to her, but her focus is firmly trained on the man before us. “It was good seeing you too Mike.” She says, a smile on her smudged lips that never reaches her eyes.
As soon as Mike is out of earshot I relax, leaning against the bar again and training my attention on her. “I’m guessing that was ‘the date’?” I arch a brow.
She heaves out a sigh, focusing on her glass of soda and nods. “Unfortunately.”
I can’t say that I’m at all disappointed with the outcome of her night. When I came to the restaurant tonight it had been with the full intention of getting dinner-to-go for Devon and I as we work late on a case for one of my higher profile clients. I opted to come and order instead of using their glitch infested app that always gets Devon’s picky order wrong, grabbing myself a drink while I waited. I never in my wildest dreams imagined running into Paige while I was here. Much less that she would end up kissing me in an attempt to avoid her actual date, a date that had set me on edge the moment she’d uttered the words.
I couldn’t think like that though, she wasn’t mine anymore… I had no right to be jealous of the men she did or didn’t go out with. Wasn’t I known for being seen with every up-and-coming starlet?
I hadn’t drunk enough to delve into how Devon believes I’m only seen with those women to fill the void that my past love left in her grey eyed wake.
“So, we’re kissing to avoid uncomfortable situations now?” I tease, shooting her my best mischievous smile that I know will get some kind of annoyed expression. “If that’s the case, remind me to take you to my dad’s place.”
She huffs, rolling her eyes like I’d aimed for, but I also catch the hint of pink that springs to her cheeks. “You’re incorrigible.”
“Probably.” I say, glancing back out into the bar and the growing number of bodies that inhabit it. “But you are the one that kissed me without my permission.” Her steely eyes cut to me as I speak and I know I’m going to have to send Devon a text and explain why I’m going to be ditching him tonight. “I didn’t think we were doing that anymore, Pages.”
Her mouth hangs open momentarily before shaking her head, her jaw tight as she redirects her attention and glares at the rack of liquor bottles behind the bar. “My bad. I apologize.”
I straighten. “Apology accepted.” I lean closer to whisper, invading her space, her honey fragrance filling my senses as my lips brush against the sensitive spot below her ear. “But I intend on getting even.”